• Welcome to Hair loss Experiences hair loss forum.

    Free impartial hair loss advice, hair transplant advice, hair loss medications and hair loss news.
    You can contact us directly at [email protected] if you experience any problems.

My hair transplant experience with Shapiro Medical Group Minnesota

Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi all.

This is my HT journey.

I flew to Amsterdam with KLM which took one hour. Then it was a direct flight to Minneapolis with NWA(Delta) which took eight hours.

Arrived at the airport at 3.30pm, went through customs and got the hotel shuttle (mini bus) to the hotel which took about 20 minutes. The hotel was the Country Inn and Suites. This is a nice hotel and is five minutes from Shapiro Medical Group. One extra bonus the hotel had was free use of computers with internet access. It cost me £637 all in with flight and accommodations for three nights.

There are quite a few sports bars and restaurants a few minutes walk from the hotel and a downtown area which has loads of bars, restaurants, shops etc.

I also visited the Mall of America which is a huge shopping centre full of everything you need. It`s one of the biggest malls in the world. The hotel shuttle will take you to and from the airport, Mall of America and to SMG as a free service. The hotel is used to SMG patients and the shuttle bus drivers too. They were all very friendly. The hotel gives discounts to SMG patients. The discount rate is $99 per night.

There are two downtowns. One is Minneapolis and the other is St. Paul. The two cities are close within 15 minutes drive of each other. The center of the 2 downtown has skyways/walkways from building to building above the streets so you don`t have to go outside in bad weather. They were both beautiful clean cities.

Monday morning I went to the clinic. I met Dr Shapiro and we talked about my expectations and he examined my hair. Then I was in the chair. I got my anesthetic needles in my scalp which I never felt a thing as they use a vibrating tool. Dr Shapiro removed my strip and then the techs starting the cutting while I was being sutured up and then Dr Shapiro made the incisions for my new hair. When about 90% of the incisions were made, they used a dye onto my recipient area for them to see the incisions better. They save the other 10% to be used for fine tuning at the end. They were also taking estimates of how many grafts were to expect every half hour or so.

Janna and the other techs then started to plant with Dr Shapiro checking all the time as my crown planting was not straight forward due to my previous poor work which left plugs in there growing in the wrong directions. My crown work went great and then they proceeded to plant in the middle of my hairline. Then towards the end, Dr. Shapiro and Janna did the stick/plant method to fine tune the hairline. This is where Dr. Shapiro makes the incision and then the graft is planted straight away after each incision is made. They said once the incisions are filled with grafts, you can see spaces in between, so Dr. Shapiro always asks for single hairs to be saved for this part.

Photos were taken at every opportunity by Dr Shapiro.

Once finished I was shown the work and asked if I was happy which I was.

I went back to the hotel and logged on the net and chilled out for the night. I took two Vicodin for pain before I went to bed, woke up fine and didn`t need any more pain relief meds. I took two though just before my plane journey home to be safe.

Next day Tuesday, checked out of the hotel and went to SMG for a hair wash and haircut. They took more photos and a video of the work.

Dr Shapiro chatted with me again to confirm I was happy. I then hung around and was invited to watch a live surgery of planting and cutting grafts which were very interesting. They were very professional and great at what they were doing.

I would without any doubt say that if you choose to have an HT with SMG that you will have a great experience and receive a world class result.

Now sitting at home happy as can be thanks to SMG.

Cheers BM.
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
very nice account bigmac kudos buddy........ its always good to read about other peoples experiences with all the different clinics, especially if they go into detail as you have because all the information you provided will most definately help out future patients including myself cheers pal:)
 
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Hi BN... not long to go now mate...

Can you set up the thread about your repair etc etc.... would be great to get that up and running on here..

Yep BigM.... a great write up and helpful.

Tim
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
no worries tim excited as hell....... i will get the thread up and running as soon as i get sober lol, give me a few days budy. Great to see you on here with us guys merry xmas dude to you and your family av a good one pal;)
 
timuk

timuk

My member is cooler than NN's
Merry Christmas to you and family also mate...

Tim
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hope everyone has a great time over the festive season.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Here are some pictures of my HT journey.

I had 250 or 350 grafts in the hairline ,i will check exactly and the rest went into my crown.
Here is my graft count.

1s-285

2s-907

3s-399

4s-23

1614grafts =3388 hairs

strip size was 1.3width by 16.5cm length

pre op


133.jpg


134.jpg


crown immediate post-op

129.jpg


Donor sutured up

131.jpg


130.jpg


1 day post op crown

127.jpg


128.jpg


hairline one day post op

126.jpg


crown 5 days post op

124.jpg


donor area and crown 5 days post op

123.jpg


scar 5 days post op

122.jpg


scar 10 days post op

121.jpg


12 days post op hairline

119.jpg


donor scar 28 days post op

118.jpg


hairline dry 5 months post op

115.jpg

crown dry 5 months post
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
You have one of the best documentations with clear, consistent pictures. Thanks for posting your progress for everyone to follow. Nicely done. :cool:
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks Janna,hopefully it will show others what to expect and what can be achieved.
 
the B spot

the B spot

Pick your Poison!
Looking Good BM!

It's going to be a toss up between you and Bullitnut pretty soon as to who looks better.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks B spot, I`m feeling good now about my hair. I agree bullitnut is going to look good in approx 6 months.
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
the B spot wrote:
Looking Good BM!

It's going to be a toss up between you and Bullitnut pretty soon as to who looks better ¬b`
I've seen them both in person......there's no contest, Bullitnut looks better already. )(_::
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Blimey that was quick, someones been sleeping in the knife drawer. nice one J ¬b`
 
janna

janna

Valuable Member
Shoudn't there be some updates of your crown by now?????????????

You're slacking.......
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Lol come on dude get your camera out bud we are getting withdrawel symptoms
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks Janna for putting my pictures side by side .

That was super quick in sending them back to me.

I took the pictures at my mams house sneakily as she does not know about my HTs and i tried to get as near as possible the same angles etc as my post op picture.

Nw5a,my balding area was the size of my fist clenched if that helps.

Here are the 9 months updates.



 

Attachments

  • b4aft9mos.jpg
    b4aft9mos.jpg
    30.4 KB · Views: 2,514
Top